Investing.com - Asia shares were maixed on Thursday with China eding out some gains and Tokyo down on leading company turbulence.
Chinese markets were higher in early trade, as the Shanghai composite added 0.11%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.4%.
The Nikkei 225 fell 0.53%. Hitachi plunged 7.03% after news that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which was down 2.74%, requested for $6.64 billion to cover costs from their joint South African power plant project.
Elsewhere, Japan said core machinery orders rose 6.7% in December month-on-month, handily beating the expected 3.1% gain. In Australia, the NAB quarterly business confidence index came in at plus-5, a dip from plus-6.
Australia's ASX 200 was up just 0.04%, supported by its energy sub-index, which was up 0.56 percent. Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) shares fell 0.78% after it announced late Wednesday that it would pay a larger-than-expected dividend of $1.70 per share, instead of the expected $1.33 per share and announced a $500 million share buyback.
Shares of BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) were also down 1.67% after it halted operations at its Escondida cooper mine in Chile, the world's largest, ahead of a planned strike on Thursday.
Overnight, U.S. stocks were mixed after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Utilities, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods sectors led shares higher while losses in the Financials, Oil & Gas and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.18%, while the S&P 500 index climbed 0.07%, and the NASDAQ Composite index climbed 0.15%.